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INTRO
Welcome to the Multiverse! Multiple worlds exist side by side in different dimensions, known as planes, and they are as different as night and day. All of them, however, have a form of magical energy known as mana. Most residents of these planes are unaware of other worlds, but there are some special beings with the ability to safely travel between them, known as Planeswalkers.

Magic: the Gathering is a Trading Card Game, the first of its kind, developed by Richard Garfield and his playtesters for the gaming company Wizards of the Coast in 1993. The game quickly became a hit, and it is currently bigger than it has ever been. You and your opponent play the role of dueling Planeswalkers, using customized decks made up of your spells, the creatures you can summon, your mana bonds with lands, and even other Planeswalkers you can call in to help out. Whoever can get every opponent down to 0 life wins.

This thread is coming a bit earlier because there is a big reveal bash on Friday, which will be livestreamed from Grand Prix Las Vegas at this Twitch channel around 5 PM PDT.

Last set, we arrived at an Egyptian mythology world, Amonkhet, but now Nicol Bolas has returned and the end times are here!

Note that huge parts of the next set, Ixalan, have been leaked. Official reveals don't start for a another three months, so the best course of action is to not talk about them in this thread beyond the surface level, so everyone's memories become foggy by that time.

STANDARD CHANGES
As announced in this article, Standard will use the new "three-and-one model" starting from the spring 2018 set, Dominaria. What does this mean? Well:
* No more small sets. Starting from Dominaria, every Standard set will be large and drafted by itself.
* That also means no more blocks. Or rather, the block structure is allowed to be very fluid now. One world might get only one set, while another might get two or even three. Sets that take place on the same world might not be mechanically connected, even if they are right after each other.
* Core sets are back, in their old summer slot, starting 2018. Compared to before, where they tried to appeal to both beginners and experts and thus muddled the message, they will err on the side of appealing to beginners. Still, there is appeal to experienced players in that they will act as places to print relevant Standard cards without too much concern for fitting them into a world or set theme.
* The Masterpiece rarity has been downgraded from evergreen to only a sometimes thing. Masterpiece cards are exciting reprints printed at a higher rarity than mythic rare, and they did very well at first, but they had diminishing returns, and caused all kinds of problems with card prices. The fall 2017 set Ixalan will not have Masterpieces.

Standard rotation will remain the same as it is now, with the oldest four sets leaving every fall release.

GETTING STARTED
If you're a beginner, feel free to come in. Us regulars can get a bit technical with card evaluations and use a lot of jargon, and many of us will loudly proclaim that a cool-looking card is junk, or say that a lame-looking card is really powerful, so ask us if you want an explanation.

To see what a game is like, check out Geek and Sundry's Spellslinger series (now discontinued), where Day[9] battled various geek celebrities, often losing, using simple and easy to follow decks.

To get started, check out the official page. Basically:
* It's recommended that new players play Magic Duels (thread). It's a great way to learn the game on your own, and it's free! That said, there will no longer be new updates, but a new digital product is expected to be announced in time.
* After that point, the act of deck building can be intimidating, so it's recommended that you try out a preconstructed deck and customize it with other cards you get, before you start making your own from scratch. Planeswalker Decks are preconstructed decks that come with four unique new cards, including a new Planeswalker card. If you have a friend to play with, there are also Duel Decks that provide two decks for a game right out of the box, but are a bit more complicated.
* To get your physical collection started, buy a Deck Builder's Toolkit, which includes not just a starting collection of cards (including a lot of lands), but also some booster packs and a good box to store cards in. The Holiday Gift Box provides an even larger starting collection and better storage.
* The different play formats can be found here. The most popular formats where you bring a 60-card deck ahead of time (Constructed) are Standard, Modern, and Legacy. The most popular formats where you start out with no deck and have to make them from scratch (Limited) are Draft and Sealed. Casual play has no restrictions other than what your friends decide. Once your skill advances, another popular way to play Magic casually is Commander.
* While game stores will often hold Magic events at other times, every store that has Magic events will have Friday Night Magic. There, you will be able to find other players in your area to both have matches with and trade with. Find game stores here. And to get started participating in your local game store (LGS) scene, attend an open house or prerelease event!

PRERELEASEPrerelease Primer
While the set won't officially be sold until the release date, that isn't the first time you can get your hands on the new cards. Game stores hold prerelease events for every set. You play in the Sealed format, where every player is given a box with six booster packs and a random additional rare card. From this pool of cards, all of which you keep, each player builds a deck of 40 cards and participates in a Swiss-system tournament. This is a fun and casual event, where everyone is still trying to figure out the set, so don't worry about messing up. In addition to normal duels, there are also Two-Headed Giant events, where you pair up with another player and face off against another team.

Prerelease events will be held on July 8-9, 2017. Call your local game store a few days ahead of time to register for the prerelease, or they might just run out of room. Find local game stores here.

Amonkhet is a harsh desert world where everything that dies is cursed to rise again. People gather in oases, magically protected from the sand and horrors, raising warriors to go through the Trials of the Five Gods and thus gain their favor.

God-Pharaoh Nicol Bolas has returned to his kingdom, and he brings destruction. Can the Gatewatch stand up to him and the horrors of the desert he unleashed onto the city? Take a wild guess.

The returning mechanics are:
* Cycling - You may discard cycling cards from your hand for the cycling cost to then draw a card.
* Exert - Before, exert only appeared as an attack trigger, where you could choose to have the creature not untap next turn in exchange for a bonus. Now, exert also appears on activated abilities unrelated to attacking.
* Aftermath - You can cast the top half of these split cards from your hand, but the bottom half can be cast only from your graveyard.

Just deserts

With the only thing protecting the city from the desert gone, all the people can do is die or adapt. Several creatures become stronger not just if you control a desert, but also if you have one in your graveyard, which is one reason why you might want to cycle the deserts that now stand around the godly monuments.

Zombie Marvels

The zombies of Naktamun, Amonkhet's great city, were kept under control by cartouches that bound them into servitude. However, with that protection revoked, there is nothing to stop the horde now. Where creatures were once embalmed, there are now eternalized as Bolas's elite army. Exile that creature from your graveyard for the eternalize cost, and you get a zombie copy of it. Unlike before, it's black, and it's always a 4/4 creature, which is usually much beefier than the living version. Creatures with afflict are dangerous to block, as that spreads their infection to you anyway through the designated life loss.

The Forgotten

When Bolas took over Amonkhet, he erased every part of the culture he found inconvenient--including the existence of three gods that he took for himself. No one remembers the names of these gods, and thus they don't have the devotion to be indestructible, but that doesn't stop them from coming back over and over. Oh, and speaking of scorpions...

InvocationsInvocation image gallery
Battle for Zendikar, Kaladesh, and Amonkhet all have a special set of reprints known as masterpiece cards. They are printed at a rarity higher than mythic rare, but have no unique cards and don't affect what's in Standard. Each set's masterpiece collection is foiled with a special themed frame. Amonkhet Invocations continue from the previous set, showcasing cards that thematically tie into the world.

You know what they remind me of?

RESOURCESOfficial articles - Nicknamed the Mothership, these articles are the primary source of news. Recommended columns are Making Magic, written by the head designer, Mark Rosewater (aka MaRo); Magic Story, which tells the story, written by various authors; and Latest Developments, written by various Magic developers. The other articles generally discuss deck building. For older articles before the site changed, go here.Card image gallery - Best way to see all of the spoiled cards together, but only updates once a day.Blogatog - Tumblr ran by Mark Rosewater where he answers questions, updates very frequently.Drive to Work - Mark Rosewater's weekly podcast about Magic that he literally records as he drives to work. Two episodes are released every Friday.MTG Reddit - The best place to get new card information. The community sucks, though.Mythic Spoiler - A good way to see what cards have been spoiled, updates throughout the day.Gatherer - The official method of searching through released cards. Has autocomplete.Scryfall - The better search method, with bigger cards, but it doesn't have autocomplete.Game store locator

Member

We now (at least vaguely) know all of those characters:
Tishana, Voice of Thunder (the legendary merfolk)
Pirate VraskaAloy of the Nora New R/W planeswalker (looks like she got moved between sets - she's in Ixalan rather than Rivals now)
and obviously Ajani

It's worth remembering that they only beat Ulamog and Kozilek because the plane of Zendikar itself is sentient and consumed them with help from the Gatewatch. And Emrakul beat itself because it was bored.

It's worth remembering that they only beat Ulamog and Kozilek because the plane of Zendikar itself is sentient and consumed them with help from the Gatewatch. And Emrakul beat itself because it was bored.

Member

OK, Ixalan leaks are cool and all, but when are we getting the reveals for the rest of the Commander 2017 tribes? I don't want to start building another deck and have them reveal a tribe I really like.

Member

OK, Ixalan leaks are cool and all, but when are we getting the reveals for the rest of the Commander 2017 tribes? I don't want to start building another deck and have them reveal a tribe I really like.

Member

OK, Ixalan leaks are cool and all, but when are we getting the reveals for the rest of the Commander 2017 tribes? I don't want to start building another deck and have them reveal a tribe I really like.

Member

Yep. My guess is that she leads the Ixalan equivalent to the Inca civilisation (or whatever mesoamerican civilisation they're using as a base), who live among the dinosaurs (and presumably worship the larger ones as avatars of the suns).

Member

To defeat Kozilek and Ulamog, the Gatewatch literally trapped them in an area, then channeled the entire Plane's mana into Chandra. Iirc, the story even mentions how Zendikar was warping around the event because of the sheer power that was being used.

It's not like they curbstomped the Eldrazi, far from it. It was a last ditch effort after the "Hall of Attractions Featuring Ulamog" failed.

Tezzeret lost because he got cocky/The Consulate are the dumbest government in the Multiverse. What the fuck were they planning to gain from Tezerret's Portal?

That's one "Win because our Enemy is stupid", One Pyrrhic Victory(Zendikar is still in shambles) and one "Win because our Enemy conceded". I mean, a loss isn't bad, but they haven't been paired against a stronger opponent and won without sacrifice.

Member

To defeat Kozilek and Ulamog, the Gatewatch literally trapped them in an area, then channeled the entire Plane's mana into Chandra. Iirc, the story even mentions how Zendikar was warping around the event because of the sheer power that was being used.

It's not like they curbstomped the Eldrazi, far from it. It was a last ditch effort after the "Hall of Attractions Featuring Ulamog" failed.

Tezzeret lost because he got cocky/The Consulate are the dumbest government in the Multiverse. What the fuck were they planning to gain from Tezerret's Portal?

That's one "Win because our Enemy is stupid", One Pyrrhic Victory(Zendikar is still in shambles) and one "Win because our Enemy conceded". I mean, a loss isn't bad, but they haven't been paired against a stronger opponent and won without sacrifice.

Banned

Yeah, I think WotC's story people basically had the right idea here in terms of story direction and misjudged how the timing would play out, or how mechanical factors (like too many GW PW cards) would affect it. Setting up the Gatewatch, giving them a couple easy victories, showing that they're being rash and unwise in their decision-making, and then having them get wrecked by a superior foe is smart storytelling and it does make it legitimately satisfying to see them lose, while still setting it up for a comeback story.

Banned

This is the R&D equivalent of staffing up creative to support more settings per year, and also reflects the fact that a) Hasbro considers this one of their top five brands going forward and b) they expect another surge of growth from MDN.